Limited access to clean water is one of the major challenges facing
people throughout South Sudan, particularly in the current emergency
situation. The primary barriers to accessing clean water for affected
populations are: (a) limited or no infrastructure for storage of clean
water, (b) limited or no means of transporting clean water to
communities in need, and (c) limited access to methods for purifying
water available at the site and community level. During the rainy season,
which is fast approaching, water points often become contaminated—
particularly in and around areas hosting internally displaced populations.
It is urgent that we find a solution to improving access to and storage of
clean water to ensure that populations affected by the current crisis can
meet this basic need.

We propose to improve the water purification and storage kits that are
currently available from humanitarian agencies by reducing the size and
making the kits more ‘mobile’. The existing kits are too large for the
people who typically transport water—women and children—to carry.
We need to modify the kit to make it lighter and easier to transport. In
addition, we want to introduce a filtering component to the kit,
essentially adapting the technology used in the Life Straw to enable
people to fill the lighter, more mobile storage kits with water while
filtering it through the straw—acting like a hose. We would also include
a filtering cloth in the kit to enable for additional filtration at the
household level.